The boarder between Thailand and Malaysia consisted of a kind of demilitarized zone because the place where I got stamped out of Thailand was like a kilometer from the place I got stamped into Malaysia. The roads were wider and smoother in Malaysia and it seemed like the whole country was tree farms as far as the eye could see. After a couple days of riding I got to the Island of Pedang, which is also known as Georgetown because it used to be a Dutch fort-town for many years. I did the tour of the base which still exists and saw a lot of old Dutch buildings. There were quite a few of tourists on the main street which was interesting. A lot of them were hanging out in a bar called Reggae bar. It was interesting to see that in Asia I saw a lot of Reggae and Bob Marley related themes. After riding around the island which seemed to be entirely inhabited by the large city I took the boat to Sumatra.

After a couple of days I was thrilled to find the roads in Malaysia are just as plush as in Thailand, and they speak English unlike Thailand, or any other country other than Katmandu for that matter. But I was only there for two days because I went straight to Indonesia, which is worlds different from a cyclists perspective.

After I came back from Sumatra I stayed in the same place as I did the first time I came through here. I was kind of sick in the lungs to I went to the Georgetown hospital to buy an inhaler but they gave one to me for free because Malaysia has a public medical system. Malaysia was much more developed than I thought it was. After Georgetown I rode south towards Epoh, but after riding over a large pass I got sick and barely rolled into the town. I stayed in a hotel there and went to the hospital the next day for a Malaria test which they gave to me for free. I came up negative and they gave me another inhaler for free. I got some new stuff for my bike also. I saw a movie there and noticed that most of the movies in Malaysia are Chinese which was odd because Malaysia is the only country in Asia other than Nepal where the people speak English, but it is also the only country where most of the movies are Chinese. The next day I rode towards Kuala Lumpur on the highway and stayed in an obscure village. Now read the journal below:

I am in a town now 110 KM south of Epoh. I was going to go to Kuala Lumpur today, but the cop kicked me off the highway and I don't want to ride at night on the frontage road. He told me the fine was 85 bucks but he didn't fine me because the sign was written in Malay. I started riding at 11:00 today because I ate bread and hot dogs and oranges which takes forever. In these cheap countries I should eat out. It saves time.

I rode a small road to Kuala Lumpur the next day and got there in the afternoon and went straight to the Petronas towers, the highest buildings in the world which needless to say I could see in the distance. I couldn't go up the towers though because they were just for offices, but there was a tower next to them that was just as high because it is up on a hill. The center of Kuala Lumpur looked just like any first world country with the big buildings, and well maintained roads and gardens.

I had a meal at an American chain restaurant and got some money at the bank and then went down to the Chinese part of town where the markets and cheap hotels are. I got a bed in a dorm room but I was the only person there, and went for a walk around the markets and looked for a movie theater; and was surprised to see that all the movies in the theater were Chinese!

The next day I went to the top of the tower and snapped some photos of the city. I was surprised to see that the city wasn't very big. I was expecting a large skyline because the center of the city was so well developed, but that was just the center of the city, and beyond that it was just arms of lower buildings stretching out through the trees which came in arms that almost touched the center.

The next day I rode out of Kuala Lumpur towards Singapore but couldn't find a frontage road so I went back to the city and got a bus ticket. On the way back I got stuck in a median in a highway for like a half hour because of rush hour traffic. After I broke through and rode through the city I noticed that there was a large Mosque there too and a lot of traditional Muslims there.

I was surprised to see how developed Malaysia was. They had a good public health care system, the roads were in good shape, a lot of the people spoke English, and there were lot of foreign businesses there like fast food joints. Malaysia was surprisingly cosmopolitan also, with an even mix of Indians, Natives, Muslims and Chinese.

While I was waiting for my bus to take off I had a meal at a Kenny Loggins fast food joint which was the best one I had ever been too because it was pure health food. It was a buffet with grilled chicken and vegetables.

That night I took a bus about four hours down to Singapore. The guy sitting next to me was a friendly Muslim guy in a turban who showed me his mosque when we drove by it.